Improvement in calendar-clocks



E. M. & J. E. MIX.

Calendar Clock; No. 34,613. Patented March 4, 1862.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEieE.

EUGENE M. MIX AND JAMES E. MIX, OF ITHACA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS TO VAIT T. HUNTINGTON AND HARVEY PLATTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CALENDAR-CLOCKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 311,613, dated March 4, 18672.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, EUGENE M. Mlx and JAMES E. MIX, both of Ithaca, in the county of Tompkins and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Calendar-Movements for Clocks, and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a front view of a calendar-movement having our invention applied. Fig. 2is a transverse vertical section of the same. Fig. 8 is a back view of the day-of-the-month wheel and the mechanism for operating' it. Fig. 4L is an end view of the month-roller and the mechanism for operating it. Fig. 5 is a side view of the year-wheel. Fig. 6 is a side view of the four-year wheel.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

Our invention relates to the construction of the wheel generally known as the day-ofthemonth7 wheel,carrying theindex which denotes the day of the month upon the dial or calendar. This wheel has been variously/*constructed, and had various devices attached to it to provide for its making one thirty-first, two thirty-firsts, three thirty-firsts, or four thirtyfirsts of a revolution at the expiration of every month, according as the month has thirtyone, thirty, twenty-nine, or twenty-eight days 5 butits construction and attachments have been generally either complicated or liable to get out of order.

Our invention consists in the construction of the wheel with three of its thirty-one teeth progressively shorter than the remaining twenty-eight, which are of uniform length, that by the use of a properly-operated click to move the wheel and a properly-controlled detent to stop it one, two, three, or four teeth, as may be required, may be caused to pass the detent at the expiration of the month, and so permit the movement of the day-of-the-monthindex from the position which indicates the number (3l, 30, 29, or 28,) of the last day of one month to the position which indicates the number l.

To enable others skilled in the art to apply our invention to use, we will proceed to describe it with reference to the drawings.

A is a bed-plate, to which are attached the posts which support the several parts of the calendar mechanism. a is the arbor of the day-of-the-month index, having the day-of-themonth wheel F fast onI its rear end. The construction of this wheel is best shown in Fig. 3, in which the three shorter teeth are marked 2S), 30, 31. The several teeth all form rigid portions of the wheel, and are at equal distances apart, and the bottoms of the spaces between them are all in a circle concentric to the axis of revolution. The twenty-ninth tooth is rather shorter, or projects not so much as the twenty-eight, which are of uniform length. The thirtieth is still shorter, and the thirty-first the shortest. The arbor a is fitted to work in bearings in two posts, A and A4. It has fast upon it, besides the wheel F and index, a ratchet-wheel, D, of thirty-one teeth, and a snail-cam, D2, the latter for actuating the mechanism by which the movement of the month-roller O is effected, and the former having applied to it a pawl, c, Fig. 1, for preventing the d ay-of-the-month wheel F and its index from turning the wrong way, the said pawl being attached by a pin, c2, to the post A4 and a fixed stop, c', being secured in the said post to prevent the pawl being lifted too high.

The day-of-the-month wheel F derives motion from a click, I, (best shown in Fig. 3,) that is suspended by a pin, g, from a lever, I', that is fitted to oscillate freely upon the arbor a. The said click, when it is moved upward with the said lever, passes freely over the teeth of the wheel F, but when it is moved downward engages between the teeth and turns the wheel. This lever I has attached to it a rod, b, which is to be lifted up and allowed to descend again once in every twenty-four hours by mechanism deriving a continuous motion from the clock-movement. The said rod in its upward movement raises the lever I' and click I, and in its descent, which is permitted to take place quickly, its weight, or a weight applied to it for the purpose, produces the descent of the lever and click and causes them to turn the wheel F as far as permitted by a detent, J, which is attached by a pin, h', to the post A5, said detent being raised from between the teeth of the said wheel to permit the necessary movements of the said wheel by a projection, h, on the lever I coming into contact with it as the said lever rises, and being allowed to drop again with the said lever as the latter descends. The wheel F is only moved farther than the distance of a single tooth at the expiration of the month of less than thirty-one days, when it has to be moved the distance of two, three, or four teeth, according as month has thirty, twenty-nine, or twenty-eight days, and such farther movement depends upon the depth to which the point of the detent is allowed to fall between the teeth when the shorter teeth arrive op posite to it.

The means represented for controlling the position to which the detent is allowed to fallv consist of the year-wheel K, the leap-year wheel, or, as it may be termed, the "February-wheel, L, and an arm, J', attached rigidly vto the detent J. The year-wheel Kis made of a thin plate of brass or other metal and secured to one end of the month-roller C, 011 whose periphery there are inscribed in twelve equal longitudinal divisions the names of the months, which are presented successively opposite to openings in the dial or front of the clock.

The circle of the said wheel K is divided into twelve equal parts, representing the twelve months of the year, as shown in Fig. 5, the divisions representing the seven months of thirty-one days being made to present themselves less prominently in the circumference of the wheel than those representing the shorter months, but all the latter, including` the one representing the month of February, being equally prominent. This wheel K, rotating with the month-roller C, makes one-twelfth' best shown in Fig. 6, has four teeth arranged at equal distances apart-viz., three, ri t' t', of equal length, and one, which is shorter. It is arranged above the axis of and close to the side of the year-wheel K on a fixed stud, j, secured in the post A", and has secured to it a spur-gear, Z, which gears with a spur-gear, k, that is secured to the year-wheel, the gear Z having four times the number of teeth that 7c has, so that the leap-year wheel L makes precisely one revolution while the year-wheel K makes four. The arrangement of the gearing is also such that when the division of the yearwheel K representing the month of February comes to the top one of the teeth i t' i of the leap-year wheel is presented directly over the axis of that wheel, the short tooth being presented only during the leap-year.

The extremity of the arm J ofthe detent J is turned downward, and is situated directly over the year-wheel and leap-year wheel, and is provided with a step-formed face, m u, (see Fig. 1,) the part m of which is situated over the wheel K and the part u over the wheel I; and the said wheels constitute stops to the said arm J', and thereby regulate the position to which the detent falls and the depth to which it enters between the teeth ofthe day-of-the-month wheel F when it falls to arrest the movement of that wheel. When one of the less prominent di visions ofthe year-wheel, representing a month of thirty-one days, is presented upward the detent is allowed to drop down as low as the bottom of the teeth of the wheel F, and hence it will prevent the said wheel moving more than one tooth at a time, and thirty-one days will be indicated by the day-of-the-month index. When, however, one of the more prominent divisions, representing a month of thirty days, is presented the arm J is stopped by the wheel Kin a higher position and the detent prevented dropping so deeply between the teeth of the wheel F as to stop the shortest tooth, marked 3l in Fig. 3, and representing the thirty-first days of the long months; and hence, though the twenty-ninth and thirtieth teeth are stopped after the movements of the wheel which take place at the end of the twenty-eighth and the twenty-ninth days, the thirty-first tooth is allowed to pass the detent and the wheel goes on till the rst tooth (marked l in Fig. 4) arrives at the detent and the index indicates the number l on the calendar or dial. During the month of February in other years than leap year one of the three longer teeth f5 of the leap year wheel L is presented under the arm J', and the said arm is arrested by falling on the top of the said tooth in such a position that the detent will stop none but the full-length teeth of the wheel F, and hence in the movea ment of the said wheel which takes place at the end of the twenty-eighth day all three of the shorter teeth pass, and the said wheel is not stopped till the tooth l arrives at the de= tent; but in February of leap-year the shorter tooth of the wheel L is presented to the arm and the detent allowed to fall so much lower that, though it will not stop the thirtieth tooth, it will stop the twenty-ninth.

The means of operatingtherodbmust besuch as to permit the click I to be raised over four of the teeth ofthe wheel F. On all days but the first day of a month ensuing after a month of less than thirty-one days the said click requires to be raised over one tooth only; but on the first days of the months ensuing after monthsof thirty days it requires to be raised over two teeth, and on the lst of March in all years but leap-year over three teeth.

The month-roller O, to which, it will be recollected, the year-wheel K is attached, has its journals supported in bearings in the posts A2 and A'. It derives motion to the extent of one-twelfth of a revolution at the end of the month from the snail-cam D2, before mentioned, on the arbor a, through the agency of a lever, M, (shown in Figs. l, 2, and 4,) a rod, p, (shown in Figs. 'l and 4,) and a lever, N, click P, and wheel Q, (shown in Fig. 4,) the said wheel Q having twelve teeth and being secured to the roller C, and the lever N being fitted to work on the shaft q of said roller close to the said wheel, and having the click P suspended from it by a pin, s, in such a manner that as the said eliek rises with said lever it will slide over the teeth ofthe wheel Q, but that as it descends l with said lever it will engage between the teeth of and move the said wheel and with it the roller C. The lever M works on a fulerum, o, secured to one of the posts A', which contain the bearings of the journals of the day-of-theweek wheel B, and is furnished with a rigid downwardly-projeeting leg, M', which rests upon the cam D', and it is connected by the rod p with the cliek-lever N. The eam,by its revolution, raises the lever M, and with it the lever N and the pawl, and when the abrupt step of the eam passes the end of the arm M' the levers drop and the click moves the wheel Q suddenly. The roller C is prevented moving too far by a detent, R, which is raised to permit the necessary movement of the wheel Q by a projection,

EUGEN M. MIX. JAMES E. MIX.

Witnesses S. W. SMITH, JABEZ B. Soorr. 

